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CHAPTER V. 



PROGRESS TOWARDS A NATURAL SYSTEM OF 

 BOTANY. 



WE have already said, that the formation of a 

 natural system of classification must result 

 from a comparison of all the resemblances and 

 differences of the things classed ; but that, in acting 

 upon this maxim, the naturalist is necessarily either 

 guided by an obscure and instinctive feeling, which 

 is, in fact, an undeveloped recognition of physiolo- 

 gical relations, or else acknowledges physiology for 

 his guide, though he is obliged to assume arbitrary 

 rules in order to interpret its indications. Thus all 

 natural classification of organized beings, either 

 begins or soon ends in physiology ; and can never 

 advance far without the aid of that science. Still, 

 the progress of the natural method in botany went 

 to such a length before it was grounded entirely on 

 the anatomy of plants, that it will be proper, and I 

 hope instructive, to attempt a sketch of it here. 



As I have already had occasion to remark, the 

 earlier systems of plants were natural ; and they 

 only ceased to be so, when it appeared that the 

 problem of constructing a system admitted of a 

 very useful solution, while the problem of devising 

 a natural system remained insoluble. But many 

 botanists did not so easily renounce the highest 

 object of their science. In France, especially, a 



